Audio-only drama: movies without pictures?

Paul,
[nq:1]Bert -- I see from the website that you've adaptated books for plays for the radio market. Did you follow a certain format for that...?[/nq]
There is an approximate BBC house style for script layout, but these days it is only approximate: in times gone by, when the Beeb's audio drama departments were much bigger and better funded than they are now, all scripts were retyped by staff secretaries before they went into production; now, a writer's own final draft manuscript (or computer file) is often simply photocopied and used, with no standardised layout being insisted on. As long as the basic elements of the script are present and clearly differentiated it seems that it will be acceptable, though I've heard moans from technical crews that they're sometimes given scripts to work from which are barely up to their particular specialised needs.

The BBC website has examples of recommended layouts, I think.
[nq:1]Different kind of "visuals" for this type of format isn't it?[/nq]
Well yes, in the sense that it's a bit daft to include stuff that a listener can't appreciate from sound alone. But it's perfectly reasonable to write, for example, "A powerful sports car comes tearing round the corner, skids, rides up on the kerb and crashes through a plate glass window". Or, on a less melodramatic level, to punctuate speech with a direction like, "She looks up and locks eyes with her husband", since even though that one obviously can't actually be heard, the action affects the dialogue either side of the moment. I often specify bodily movement, too, because it affects the voice.
[nq:1]Are you tempted to use a lot of exposition as found in most books or do you try to write it like a movie medium story - "show don't tell?"[/nq]
Novel-type exposition is usually pretty deadly on radio, I think. Do you know the "Gun in my right hand" phrase? It's used to indicate that clunky, tell-the-audience-what-they-can't-see sort of writing: the full line is, "Don't move! This gun which I'm holding in my right hand is loaded!"

I suppose "show, don't tell" applies to the stuff I write, but actually, "don't even show, because most visual information doesn't matter a hoot to the audience" is nearer what I aim for. Unless it's absolutely vital to the plot, I almost never try to get across what characters or settings look like, for example. Why bother? Let each listener create her own image. Isn't that what radio's all about? The power of the audience's imagination?

What's your involvement with the genre, Paul?

Bert http://www.bertcoules.co.uk